Posted
by
samzenpus
on Wednesday December 18, 2013 @01:10PM
from the ask-me-anything dept.

One of the founders of the cyberpunk genre, Bruce Sterling needs little introduction to science fiction fans.
You can read what "Chairman Bruce" has to say at Beyond the Beyond on Wired and the Sterling tumblr. He has agreed to to sit down and answer any questions you may have. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one question per post.

Looking at your bibliography, the books that I know I've read of yours are The Artificial Kid and Holy Fire. I actually think of bits (skull cannons and immaturity from longevity treatments) from these books on occasion, and was wondering what other books you would recommend from your publications that would attract a magpie?

I have no idea who Bruce Sterling is and I'm a huge sci-fi fan too. Its quite possible to enjoy sci-fi without knowing who wrote, directed it or who created it's genre. Some introduction would have been nice or even just a link to his Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Sterling)

Then, hope you don't mind if I interject some recommendations.:-) Set in the near future, Holy Fire is an intimate look at the implication of life-extension and the meaning of youth (but not in a philosophically ponderous way... it's more of a wild chase). Incidentally, it includes a lot of fashion/clothing, which may not sound like a strong selling point, but it definitely broadens the appeal and accessibility of the work outside traditional sci-fi audiences. Technically speaking, I feel it's his most w

Agreed. Holy Fire is not only a great work of speculative fiction for its own sake, it's a tour-de-force of what advances in biotechnology could mean to societies on various points in the political spectrum.

In the youth communes of Europe, biotechnology has essentially 'solved' the tragedy of the commons by creating symbiotic lichen castles which will literally eat your shit and reprocess it. It's a comfortable enough life, if you can deal with perpetual subsistence.

Back when you were wrote the Hacker Crackdown, you described a world where ham-handed and overly zealous law enforcement and hacker culture collided, and predicted more of the same in the future. How has modern day law enforcement evolved in terms of its approach since that time, in what ways is it more savvy, and in what ways does it still strike you as draconian or clumsy in its approach.

When you went on your little tirade back around 1984 regarding Jerry Pournelle & David Drake's writings and comparing them to Pornography, (I believe you used the term war-porn) we as a country were but 9 years past the Vietnam Debacle. Your intense dislike...one might use the word Hatred of these two authors in particular and anything having to do with the Military in general was something I never understood. Flash-forward to 2013...With over 2.5 Million Americans having been deployed to Afghanistan and/or Iraq (over 400,000 deployed three or more times and 37,000 of those deploying 5 times or more), are you still of the belief that Science Fiction stories written by veterans depicting combat are nothing more than "war porn?" For someone who has never served in the military, why do you believe you are an expert on what constitutes "war Porn" vs Military Science Fiction?

With over 2.5 Million Americans having been deployed to
Afghanistan and/or Iraq (over 400,000 deployed three or more
times and 37,000 of those deploying 5 times or more), are you
still of the belief that Science Fiction stories written by
veterans depicting combat are nothing more than "war porn?"

That wars happen has never been in question, the question was
whether a David Drake make war more likely-- did this kind of
stuff encourage fantasies like "I am a tough-minded realist,
willing to face squarely

One of my psi blasts kicked up a large divot of earth and rubble, uncovering a silver metallic object, hitherto buried, that seemed to have been crafted by an industrial designer. It was a nitro-veridian device that had been buried there by Sterling. We were able to fly clear before it detonated. The blast caused a seismic rupture that split off a sizable part of Canada and created what we now know as Vancouver Island. This was the last fight between me and Gibson. For both of us, by studying certain ancient prophecies, had independently arrived at the same conclusion, namely that Sterling's professed interest in industrial design was a mere cover for work in superweapons. Gibson and I formed a pact to fight Sterling. So far we have made little headway in seeking out his lair of brushed steel and white LEDs, because I had a dentist appointment and Gibson had to attend a writers' conference, but keep an eye on Slashdot for any further developments.

Your Mirrorshades anthology introduced me to so many great authors, and really just got me addicted to the entire cyberpunk sub-genre. Any chance you'll collect another great set of authors for a sequel?

What is your current feeling on the current trends in fiction - in book form, manga, anime, TV, and film - have we gone away from hard SF towards science fiction focused on relationships and societies, or is this just a surface trend as we deal with the actual implications of reality and the near future?

And, in terms of that, do you think 2020 will be the way many writers thought it would be, or is it vastly different?

Some of my favorite stories were set in the world of the shapers and machinists. Stories such as 20 Evocations and ideas like the super brights. Do you plan to write any more stories dealing with that universe?

It stands out in your body of work as a steaming pile of used hay. It was written after your "retirement." I am quite pleased that y's theou've continued to write fiction - Zeitgeist would have been a fine last book, but I've enjoyed almost everything you've written since then. Zenith Angle, however, was a true stinker. After my friends and I read it, we would often smoke and speculate that Someone In Government paid you more than your usual per-word rate to come out of retirement to write some recruiting m